We salute the heroism of our combatants who fell in line of duty in the Central African Republics.

Last week the South African nation received the shocking news that thirteen of the members of our national defense force fell in combat in the face of an ambush by the insurgents whilst on an AU peace keeping mission in the Central African Republic. We take the opportunity to convey our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families of these fallen heroes of our nation, who volunteered their lifes for the noble cause of contributing towards making the our continent a better place for humanity. 

Our nation and the entire people of the African continent salute the heroism of these martyrs of our revolution, for their extraordinary commitment to occupy the forefront trenches of our struggles for the freedom and dignity of our people. The brutal assassination of these most outstanding and illustrious members of our national defense force by the insurgents in the Central African Republic, has reaffirmed our scientific notion that ideas are more powerful than weapons. The blood of these fallen heroes of our nation has germinated the seeds of solidarity and the determination of our people to take forward our collective effort for peace and development of the continent. 

We pay tribute in memory of these fallen heroes of our people for their selflessness and indomitable contribution to the struggles of the people of the continent against poverty, disease and underdevelopment. Their noble contribution to the cause of the freedom and democracy of the people of the Central African Republic, will forever be recorded in the annals of our history books as a symbol of courage to the struggles of our people against the historic legacy of imperialism and colonialism in the continent. 

The unity and cohesion of the African Union and her member states is a growing thread to the interests of the military industrial complex and monopoly capital in the continent. There is an escalating counter revolutionary effort sponsored by the former colonial masters to undermine the rule of law and democratically elected governments throughout the continent. 

The increasing number of insurgents groups that seek to undermine the collective effort of the African Union for peace, stability and development of our continent is a thread to the future of our next generations to come. The growing reality is that the former colonial powers are determined to reverse back the wave of the democratic dispensation and commitment by the African people to improve their living conditions sweeping our continent.

The Democratic Alliance has opportunistically exploited the moment of mourning by our nation for the loss of life incurred in the Central African Republic to mount a counter revolutionary offensive against the people of our country and their democratic government. Counter revolution represented by the DA has assumed preponderance to mount an offensive against the collective leadership of our democratic government accusing it of its leading role in the peace keeping mission on the continent.

The Democratic Alliance is assuming this posture for obvious reasons that it has no interest for the devastating socio economic contradictions confronting the people of the continent. Its primary focus is to protect and represent the vested business interests of the former colonial powers and monopoly capital in the southern tip of our continent. They do not have any policy framework with regard to our collective effort for the renewal of the African continent. Their form and appearance in the continent is still consistent with the traditions of Apartheid colonialism of a special type.

The fundamental weakness of the forces of counter revolution in our country is their inability to comprehend the reality that our revolution, because it is a real revolution, therefore represents the fundamental shift in the strategic orientation of our foreign policy perspectives. Our foreign policy has fundamentally shifted from the premise of the Apartheid policy of destruction and destabilization of neighbor states to the most revolutionary policy of international relations and cooperation

Our foreign policy framework is inspired by the vision of our revolutionary guiding document, the freedom charter, that seeks to achieve an ideal peaceful and prosperous African Continent and the world. It is therefore ridiculous and a distortion of true facts for the DA to compare our involvement in the peace keeping mission in the continent to those of the era of the repressive Apartheid regime. This distortion of true facts about the collective effort of the African people to bring peace and development in their own land of birth, is the main reason why the DA does not appreciate the significance of the noble effort of our democratic government in the continent.

The foreign policy perspectives of our democratic government is anchored on the holistic sustainable approach of reconstruction and development, guided by the vision of the African Union for the renewal of the African Continent in collaboration with the progressive world. Our work on the continent is derived from the collective wisdom of the people to eradicate the daunting legacy of imperialism and colonialism. Our relations with the people of the continent is therefore about our common solidarity to combat poverty, disease and underdevelopment. 

During Apartheid billions of rands that were supposed to be used to improve the socio economic conditions of our people, to provide essential services such as health, education, security, housing, water, electricity, roads and for productive investment into to create jobs, were squandered on secretive military operations designed to destruct the economic infrastructure of the neighboring states and even to destabilise and undermine the sovereignty of their democratically elected governments.

History does not forget easily, our people cannot be fooled by the counter revolutionary tendencies that seek to undermine the decisive gains of our national democratic revolution in our continent and the world. 

We salute the heroism of our troops who fell in combat in defense of the future of our generations to come. Their blood has proven to the enemy of our people that ideas are more powerful than weapons.  May their soul rest in peace.

Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador of our country to Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP in Limpopo province, writing this article in his personal capacity.

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter